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The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse

The Anna Raccoon Archives

by Andrew P Withers on November 10, 2010

Kalahari bushmen spend about a day gathering ten days of food by hunting and gathering, they then do what Kalahari bushmen do for the next nine days, which is pretty much what they feel like doing.They have a fairly rich social and cultural life passed down through oral tradition. Their technology is limited to basically what they need to get by.

These people are by all accounts are uncivilised.

So what does civilisation mean ? Classical civilisation depended on a cheap workforce that did nothing but work,this work enabled food to be grown to support a group of technocrats who raised the monuments, built the drains and tended to the sick. Greek,Roman,Chinese,Russian, British and American civilisation were all built on a class of slaves or serfs to toil in the fields to support the ‘freemen’ who enjoyed the good life and made the decisions. This class did not work one day on nine days off, their diet was poor and life expectancy equally poor. Yet they were part of a ‘civilisation’. The term can be used to define living in an urban context ( cives ) or that they were tamed people. The taming or civilising of the ‘brute savage’ usually cam about through some form of coercion either spiritual through religion or physical by the threat of superior weaponry.

In British History there have been only three major breaks in ‘civilisation’ in the last two thousand years, each of these breaks created a major leap forward in our notion of personal freedom counter balanced by a reaction by authority in the centuries thereafter.

The first happened towards the end of the fourth century, the Roman Empire in Britain became increasingly dependent on foreign mercenaries to maintain its military equilibrium. The usual form of payment for their services was land and gold. The sub rulers of Roman Britain, had plenty of the former but decreasing amounts of the latter. When the authorities defaulted the German mercenaries did not go to court in a civilised fashion, they took what they saw as their due in land. Some modern historians have tried to create a modern myth of peaceful integration which shows more about their 21st century political beliefs than the reality on the ground at the time. This was further compounded for the Romano-British, that there was a series of crop failures and famine due to poor summers created by volcanic ash, then a series of plagues that came in from the east. As there was virtually zero contact between the Romano-British and the incoming Germanic tribes, the plagues depleted only the civilised urbanised British.

The heroic Age of Arthur, Cerdic etc that followed was of small petty fiefdoms dependent on relatively independent farmers and a warrior class. Out of that maelstrom came a system of trial by a jury of your peers and much of our common law. As the Saxon state grew and Christianity reasserted itself, the civilisation created reverted to type with a reliance on slavery and serfdom.

This situation prevailed for nearly a thousand years until the black death. This plague was no respecter of rank and privilege. After the worst of the plague had occurred, and there was a general lack of labour available, the market started to assert itself and wages went up, despite repeated Royal decrees returning wages to pre black death levels, the serfs were throwing off their chains. From the mid fourteenth century to 1688, the country was a tumult of revolutionary religious and political ideas. The Paxton family went from smallholder to knighthood in two generations. English became the norm from the Bible to the courts. There was continual revolt by ‘the middling sort’ those that had benefited from collapse of serfdom. They did not want to return to being a class of drones. Our current belief in freedom stems from this period.

The last was the age of emigration, from 1607 to the early twentieth century hundreds of thousands left these shores for a better life of freedom and opportunity. The American Colonies created a new way of governing themselves by consent and created the American Constitution which is a contract between freemen (in theory at least), others created new lives and reality in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. The difference in physical and mental outlook was visible within two generations. The colonist was a independent, tough and reliable. By the time of the Cardwell military reforms in the nineteenth century there were fears as to whether the poor physical specimens being presented could ever form an army.

Until 1914 it could be argued that the average British person lived a life that would entertain social mobility, the ability to work hard and reap the reward. Nearly a century of State socialism has created a class that needs to work six days to enjoy one day of leisure, social mobility is on the decline, education derided and the skill base eroded. This is a civilisation in rapid decline.

As in the last days of the sub Roman world we now cannot afford to defend ourselves without the help of foreigners. As in the days before the Black death there is social discontent and the resurgence of diseases of poverty like TB that were eradicated and are now being imported into the country again. To work hard is to share the fruits of your labour amongst your fellows who watch you and it is called social justice.

IDave invited you to vote for change, there has been little dramatic change towards a life of freedom, quite the reverse taxes are to go up, industry and enterprise penalised.

The inability to embrace change and carry on in the same way, means that change is usually forced upon you. The British State is at a cross roads, the wrong turn will see the best leave, and the old, the sick and indigent left in decaying towns and cities. This is civilisation. The world has moved away from the west it is rising now in the BRIC countries, we had start getting used to the idea.

You mention large scale migration from the Atlantic Isles that has gone on now for a while. so what if “the best” have already left? Looking at the ways things are and are run around our islands at present there is a great deal of incompetence and stupidity and almost all major organisations can no longer be trusted to function honestly, efficiently or with the needs of the people they are supposed to serve. The collapse has happened, it is only now that the money and the resources are going as well.

In addition to the massive out-migration of (arguably) your best and brightest. I would add one further point that I have often thought gets too little notice, a huge number of your best, bravest and brightest were decimated in the two recent world wars. The constant decline since 1945 is not solely due to economic issues but also a dearth of your best minds.

Your military, police and civil services have been run by the cowards and pacifists who stayed behind (with very few exceptions).

Anyway, the damage is done. Will good men once again take over? I fear not, though I admit to being greatly encouraged by Ian Duncan Smith’s efforts. A population weaned on a soft life with no effort will not be detached from the welfare state’s teat easily as the “students ” and assorted marxists are proving today.

You would be well advised to ensure your household possesses at least one shotgun and a large cache of ammunition. You cannot rely on the authorities to protect you or your family home.

I too have some knowledge of TB which is a by product of poverty, overcrowding and poor housing. I was inadvertantly sent a copy of a letter fifteen years ago from a medical officer to a senior civil servant warning that within ten years TB would be reintroduced to the UK unless border medical checks wwere carried out. The civil servant worried about that it would be interpreted as racist !

That’s not what that phrase meant. The ‘tough’ got going and sorted out the necessary work in hand – they did not abandon their task, nor their country. It’s an analogy best fitted to the working classes – never the political.

Who decides what or who is best? Some of the best people I know are indiginous, and have no desire to leave the country of their birth – why should they give up generations of being part of something that just the past three or four decades has been sold down the river by a comparatively small but oh so powerful succession of slime-balls. These people do not lead – they plough, through the hearts of decent folk who are in the main lawa biding and wishing to stay put. Everything they valued and loved is being torn up, pulled down, and poisoned. Yes, every reason to leave – but what is left behind then? Desolation? Or a new beginning?

I believe you are correct. Another sign of the decadence and collapse of our civilisation is the ease with which we have been invaded by elements inimical to what once were our ideals, without any resistance whatever. Indeed, we pay the invaders with our money just for being here, and declare it a criminal offence to oppose them in any way. We deserve the fate which is now inevitable. Oh well, is the sun over the yardarm yet?

I firmly believe that great change is upon us. No longer will we tolerate the wastrels in government, the wastrels on the dole (those that WILL not work), and no longer will we tolerate that creeping bastard known as the EU. Britons are not quick to anger. We have a slow fuse. My belief is that that fuse is lit.

I want to be around for the ensuing BANG! It is my duty, it is my obligation, it is my privilege and it will be an honour to fight for change.

My family have been here since 1198, to my certain knowledge, and males of my line have fought in every minor and major war since then. My country was handed over to Brussels without a single shot being fired. I will die trying to get it back. I will also kill to get it back. To wrest it from the hands of these usurpers. It took us thousands of years to make this nation, and just sixty to give it away. The deal is unfair. The deal is unacceptable. I did not agree to this. I did not consent.

I want it back. All of it. No conditions. No promises given, nor accepted.

The problem is exactly as you describe, and as others have echoed in their comments, but I believe the solution is going to be one of those peculiarly English (NB not British) events that only happens every few centuries.

For a while we’ll all carry on moaning and muttering, or at least a small number of us will. The average person wont pay too much attention, especially if the bread and circuses continue, but will continue to get a bit more disgruntled day-by-day. The meeja will continue to gnaw away at everyone’s morale with their endless drip feed of bad news, anti-gummint diatribes, self-serving propaganda, total disregard for ordinary folks thoughts and generally behave as though nothing unusual is happening and that they don’t need to take any notice anyway. Dem Tories will keep on trying to balance the books but without actually doing anything that might actually make a difference. Money will go on being wasted in massive amounts, taxes wont fall, services will get worse. The pressure for real change will quietly build in the general population.

Then one day something quite insignificant will happen, doesn’t really matter what it is…but it will mean that the man on the Clapham omnibus just wont take it any more, and the lid of the pressure cooker will blow off. It will happen fast and will take most people by surprise even while they’re playing their part in it.

When the dust (and large chunks of debris) settles we’ll be back to a situation where it pays to work, the rule of law is maintained and power has been”localised” (to use the phrase de jour) as it used to be so that he who pays the piper once again calls the tune. In Daniel Hannan’s terms we will have finally completed the English Revolution that has been postponed these last 200+ years.

I’ve been saying much of what you’ve said for the past 5 years or more.

2010 has been a pivotal year and unfortunately it has pivoted in entirely the wrong direction. We have not changed our political course: far from it.

I notice DCs idea to change our balance of payments with China is to offer them insurance and other financial services, totally forgetting that these services could be provided by the Chinese themselves. To be frank, being the dumping ground of the worlds financial dross is what got us into the banking crisis in a big way, so no thanks, I’d pass on that idea.

The truth is we’re a busted flush: we have nothing to offer the world that the world can’t get elsewhere cheaper. The sooner we understand that fact and cut our cloth accordingly, the better for the country.

We need to re-invent Britain: to rethink and renew our role in the world. Just what is it we can do well that the world would pay good, hard currency for?

I don’t disagree with your first or last paragraphs. The complacency across Europe that our living standards and status will persist without us earning them is shocking.

I think your just-so story linking them if partial at best, seriously flawed at worst. The link from bushmen to urban society includes agriculture, that changes livestyle but allows denser populations and requires investment and organisation.

If you read Alan Macfarlane’s “The culture of capitalism” you will see arguments refuting your view that freedom is a 17th century issue at least in the UK. His key critique is that there has been an invalid assumption that the UK had a ‘peasant’ system like that of Europe. This difference is a key driver of the industrial revolution too.

And Marx’s idea of a rural idyll to compare with industrial towns has been more than adequately debunked.

Still, a historical perspective on The Rise and Decline of Nations (as Mancur Olson’s excellent book is called) is a good one to take. And while change is coming, it is also a mistake to extrapolate change while ignoring our reaction to it.

We won’t really change as a society till we can all see the writing on the wall, but then we will. Just as the rise of the USA changed us, but did not destroy us, the same will be true. And the readier we are, and the sooner we se it, the better.